Except for the fact that priests and healing classes are often in very high demand - so it's more like "Bob can set his terms and either you like them or you find somebody else with better terms to play with."
 

^- Exactly my reaction.
The logic sounds good at first blush, but the reality in WoW is that the healers can set the terms, and "healer" does not *only* mean "holy priest".

For instance, I know a guy who plays a 60 holy priest, and he always asks the composition and spec of the people in the party that needs a priest, and then decides whether he wants to go.

Another erroneous assumption is, "a holy priest is required". I have been through many an instance with either a shaman or druid main-healing (running as tank; luv my healer!) as high as BRD, or been the main healer as a druid (feral spec... :P) up through Ulda. On the other hand, my shadow priest has yet to main-heal an instance (he's around the level of WC, SFK and BFD).

And once a holy priest commits to a party as the main healer, he becomes part of a team, not a beck-and-call slave. I've heard about groups where the tank wouldn't go defensive and keep aggro and caused a party to repeatedly wipe (which, after booting the tank for another who did the job, they cleared the instance with no problem). Along the same lines, I've been in groups (always in SM; a sort of personal "SM curse" it seems) that the main-healer priest is casting shadow spells (I know the sound) and running out of mana while the party dies, then bolts the party after a wipe.

In summary: The "bikini wax" article seems to be an exercise in setting up false dichotomies...
 

Let me guess that those of you who think that a priest is in command have never played one. :)

I think the point of the Kill Ten Rats article is not how much control a priest has over the group, but that he *needs* a group in the first place. While it is true that nobody says "we can't start our group, we don't have a hunter", the hunter in question is happily soloing content of a level that the priest never could. Unless of course the priest goes shadow, and then isn't invited into groups any more.

If you think that a priest is holding groups hostage and has the best job in game, why don't you play one?
 

You'd be wrong. I play a priest and I'd guess that some of the other posters here do too. The priest gets to control the group at least as much as any other class and a lot more than some. With decursive gone I think I will be back to getting a lot of whines from people about how they have a disease and it needs to be cured NOW, and I'll be back to telling them I will cure their damn disease when I get around to it and if that want that to be any time soon they need to shut their whiny mouth and worry about their own job more than they worry about mine.

You claim that the point of the article is simply that a priest needs a group but it isn't, the point of the article, as you quoted, is the priest needs a group and that makes you the groups bitch. You may as well say that the the group needs a healer and that makes them your bitches. It would be equally valid, meaning equally rubbish.

Anyway, as you correctly pointed out later, the priest doesn't really need a group anyway. They can solo. Perhaps a Holy/Disc priest can't solo as well as the best solo class in the game but they can solo a hell of a lot better than a defensive spec warrior can. Oh and if they want to be good soloers then they can spec Shadow and do really well, of course then they are not needed for groups, kind of like Hunters...all seems very equitable to me.

"If you think that a priest is holding groups hostage and has the best job in game, why don't you play one?"

What kind of straw did you use for this man? It's very realistic, you'd almost think someone had actually said that.
 

I think the major problem with priests is that they do not fit most playstyles of people in warcraft. Did you join to sit back and watch others mix it up, keeping them alive? More likely you wanted to kill, hence the attraction to DPS classes already discussed in great length by many blogs. I think what everyone says can be true. If the priest actually likes being a support player and their group is good at making them realize they are worthless without the priest, then playing one can be rewarding. I am thinking of a warrior and 2 priest combo guarding an AB flag. They were tough to beat.

I find that playing priest takes a more selfless kind of person. DPS and killing are visual. At the end the guy is dead in front of you and everyone can see you lived. Many times this is attributed to the skill of the player, the prescence of a priest is ignored--maybe I get a whisper from the one I healed saying thanks. Most players I run into in WOW are far from selfless, making their playstyles not really fit the priest. Can you deny your urges for fame (top of dmg charts) and play the priest? Don't feel bad if you can't--you are not alone. It is just a role that few desire to fill, and you are playing a game so it should be fun to you.